//------------------------------// // Prologue: The First Letter // Story: The Conversion Bureau: Letters From Midgard // by Guiding_Passion //------------------------------// The Conversion Bureau: Letters from Midgard Prologue: The First Letter The sun hung low in the sky as Tristem and Cao took shelter in the remains of an old church. They had used this church as a temporary home many times during there travels and they had managed to build a makeshift shelter out of it. The church had held up surprising well given that it was over a hundred years old, and surprisingly the roof was still intact despite decades of neglect. After placing his stuff on the ground Tristem made his way up a rickety pair of stairs that led to the bell tower. Tristem shuddered a bit as the stairs creaked as he walked up half afraid that they might finally give out. Once at the top Tristem peered out and gazed at the horizon. The low light allowing him to view what he had been looking for. The glistening barrier which separated his world from Equestria. Tristem stood there and thought for a moment. It had been 4 years since the land of Equestria had surfaced from the ocean and in that time it had swallowed up a huge chunk of the earth including much of the North American continent, and now it was bearing down on there sanctuary. Tristem knew that given the rate of expansion there precious sanctuary would be swallowed up in only a month or so given how close the barrier was now. “Something bothering you Tristem,” said Cao putting her hand on his shoulder. This made Tristem jump since he had not heard her approach. “Woah! Geez Cao don’t scare me like that,” Tristem returned his gaze to the barrier, “not much I was just thinking.” “About what,” asked Cao. “Well about all that has happened in the past 4 years and how our worlds been turned upside down by this strange land that stands before us,” said Tristem. “Yeah its absolutely crazy,” commented Cao now looking at the barrier as well, “At its current rate of exponential expansion we only have a couple years left at most tell the entire world is completely swallowed up.” Turning away from the railing Tristem began to head back down the stairs, “Come on Cao we need to unpack and get the fire started.” “Alright Tristem, you know we’re going to have to address this issue soon just like everyone else on this planet,” said Cao as she walked closely behind him. “ Yes I know Cao, Lets talk about it after we’ve settled in and eaten something,” said Tristem relenting to his sisters wishes. “Alright, but I’m holding you to it.” said Cao as they continued climbing down the stairs. An hour passed as Tristem and Cao unpacked there stuff, carefully setting out there futons and other amenities. Tristem got to work getting the fire started while Cao carefully removed the chain mail and cloth padding armor that she wore under her mandarin dress. Tristem then removed his armor while Cao got out there meal for the evening. A pair of sweet potatoes that they stolen from a PER patrol, and some dried meat they stole from an HLF convoy. Cao handed Tristem one of the sweet potatoes and his portion of the dried meat. Tristem sat down beside the fire next to Cao and placed his sweet potato in the fire to cook it. “Well,” said Cao as she attended to her potato, “shall we talk about it now?” Tristem winced upon hearing this and then sighed, “I guess there’s no avoiding it is there, alright Cao we’ll talk about it; again.” Thus once again they began the same conversation they had had for the past 3 years. Whether to die as humans or to give up there humanity and live as ponies in a strange and bizarre universe, and for the last three years the only conclusion they had come to was no conclusion. This time however the discussion would end very differently. “Cao we’ve been through this a hundred times I just don’t know what to do,” said in a very agitated voice, “I mean yes Equestria sounds great, and yes we’ve heard and seen that the ponies are nice, but is it really that it seems to be.” Cao listened as Tristem blurted out the same objections he had made for the past three years, “I mean we have no way of knowing for sure do we. For all we know they’re probably no better than the World Corp we ran away from.” “Tristem every pony we’ve ever met has been both kind and friendly to us and no pony with the exception of the PER has ever tried to do anything to harm us,” said Cao in retaliation to what Tristem had said. “I know they haven’t and that bothers me it seems so unreal almost like a dream,” said Tristem shaking his head in frustration, “its just, how do we know that they’re not lying, they have to have an angle in trying to help us they just have to no one does those sorts of things for someone for nothing.” “Well what about these sweet potatoes Tristem and the apples we had last month they were the best things I have ever eaten,” said Cao holding up her half eaten potato, “surely Equestria must be a wonderful place if things like this can grow there.” “I know Cao I know but I…I…aaaaAHHHH!,” yelled Tristem as he grabbed the sides of his head and yelled as loud as he could. Cao grabbed Tristem and drew him into a hug attempting to calm him down, “I know Tristem I know I’m not sure about this myself, but you know as well as I do that if we don’t get ponified we’re going to die.” Hearing this Tristem pushed Cao away and stood up his head hung low, “I know Cao but is living as a pony truly better than dieing as a human.” Hearing this Cao feared that the discussion they had had for over three years would once again end in indecision. Casually Cao turned and gazed at the setting sun, and then out of nowhere Cao got an idea a crazy idea. The kind of idea that is so crazy and so ludicrous that it might actually work. “Tristem what if there was someone who could answer the questions that have led to our indecision, and help us come to a decision,” inquired Cao. “Really and who could possibly be able to do that,” said a very skeptical Tristem. “Princess Celestia ,” said Cao. This caused Tristem to immediately turn towards Cao and look straight at her, “Princess Celestia, let me get this straight you want us to ask her?” “Yes Tristem,” said Cao. “Us ask her,” said Tristem repeating himself. Cao nodded in affirmation. “Cao that is the stupidest idea you’ve ever come up with,” said a very agitated Tristem. “Well why not Tristem,” said Cao now sporting a very serious look on her face. “Why not, simple she is the ruler of an entire universe, and is basically a god she is not going come and talk to us,” said Tristem as he turned from Cao and started to step outside. Seeing this Cao jumped up from where she was sitting and followed him. Outside it was almost dark with only a little bit of light left coming from the rapidly setting sun. Tristem peered out once more towards the barrier and Equestria. A very simple task since in Equestria it was currently morning and Equestria shown brightly against the horizon. “Tristem wait,” yelled Cao as she ran out of the church. “I don’t want to talk about it Cao your idea is stupid,” said Tristem. “Tristem I didn’t mean that we should go and ask her in person I’m suggesting that we write her,” said Cao now standing beside Tristem. “Write her?” said Tristem with a very inquisitive tone in his voice. “Yes write her you remember that one time when we saw Ambassador Sparkle write that letter to Princess Celestia, and how that dragon pet of hers blew fire on it and it was magically sent to her. Maybe we could do the same thing,” explained Cao. This made Tristem stop and think. It was unlikely that Princess Celestia would answer a letter that they had written, but on the other hand what did they have to lose. Tristem turned to Cao the same inquisitive look on his face. “You really think that Celestia would answer if we wrote her a letter,” said Tristem. “If she is as kind and compassionate as the media and the ponies portray her as being I think that she will,” said Cao. There was a long moment of silence as Tristem stood there staring at the barrier. “Ah what the hell,” Tristem finally said, “Your right its not like we have anything to lose, come on lets go and write a letter to the princess.” It was about 10 minutes later that Tristem had finally gotten some paper and a pen around and had sat down beside the fire. Tristem sat for a minute staring at the piece of paper trying to figure out what to say. “What do you think we should say Cao,” asked Tristem. “Just tell her that we’re a pair of humans who are uncertain about the idea of getting ponified and wish to ask her a few questions about Equestria, her species, and about her.” explained Cao. “Fair enough Cao are you sure this is how Ambassador Sparkle did it?” asked Tristem. “Yes yes I remember it vividly,” said Cao. “Okay Cao,” said Tristem half convinced she was wrong, “Well I better get started, please don’t bother me while I’m writing this, we don’t have a lot of paper so I don’t want to screw it up.” “You got it Tristem I’ll just sit here and do some mending,” said Cao as she started to working on fixing a tear on her dress. It took Tristem almost an hour and a half, but he finally managed to write a letter that he believed was good enough. It read as follows. Dear Princess Celestia, You don’t know me, but my name is Tristem Saris. I am a human living in the southwest portion of the North American continent along with my sister Cao. For the last four years we have watched as your Kingdom of Equestria has slowly swallowed our world up, and while we harbor no ill will towards you or your people we find ourselves at an impasse. We are fully aware of the fact that if we wish to survive these the assimilation of Earth by Equestria we must go through the conversion process and become ponies, however we find ourselves unable to do so due to a certain level of confusion on our part. This confusion is brought on by a number of agonizing questions that we have about you, your people, your nation, and your intentions behind saving our species from certain annihilation. Therefore me and my sister humbly ask if you would be willing to answer are questions on these subjects. I understand that you are a very busy person, but my sister seems to think that you will answer our letter. Think of this as a request from two very frightened and confused humans. I give you my thanks. Respectfully yours, Tristem and Cao Exhausted Tristem lowered his pen and breathed a sigh of relief at finally being done. “That took a long time,” said Cao who was now lying on her futon half asleep. “Well of course it did Cao I wanted to do a good job,” said Tristem as he stood up and rolled the letter up. “Well here goes nothing,” said Tristem as he approached the bonfire in the middle of the room, “So I just throw the letter in the fire?” “I guess so Tristem that’s about as close as we can get to what that dragon does,” said Cao. “Alright,” said Tristem as he tossed the scrolled up letter into the fire. Tristem and Cao watched intently as the scroll of paper was slowly consumed by the fire hoping to catch a glimpse of anything that would indicate that it had worked. Sadly they did not. “Ah man It didn’t work. It didn’t even remotely look anything like what happened when the dragon blew on it,” complained Cao. “Well what did you expect Cao of course it wasn’t going to work,” said Tristem. “I suppose your right, still I had really had hoped it would work, now we won’t even know if she would’ve responded to it at all,” said Cao in a very disappointed tone. “Come on Cao its been a long day let’s get some sleep,” said Tristem as he started to lie down on his futon. “Yeah I guess that’s all we can do now goodnight Tristem,” said Cao as she laid down on her pillow and shut her eyes. “Good night Cao,” said Tristem. They were soon fast asleep. Little did they know at that moment however, That in a far-off land a beautiful and regal unicorn princess had indeed received and read the letter they had sent her, and at that exact moment was writing a response to there letter.